Hollywood’s Big Box-Office Year (Despite What You’ve Read)

We’ve been reading that movie box office has been down this year. That’s not quite true. “From January 2005 to September 2005, the movies of the six Hollywood studios earned $4.7 billion compared to $4.5 billion in the same period in 2004. Their share of the American box office rose from 68 percent in 2004 to 75 percent in 2005. The big losers were independent studios who specialize in more adult movies, such as Lions Gate and Newmarket Films, and the so-called “studioless” studios, DreamWorks and MGM, which suffered 40 percent box-office declines.”